These images are from a project called In My Skin about young people under 25 in the UK who are challenging their body image.
I am looking at those who have had or are considering having cosmetic surgery in order to become more acceptable to themselves and achieve their ideal of being "beautiful."
Social consensus in Western society today is particularly focused on physical beauty and achieving and maintaining the "perfect" face and body.
Intertwined with this I am also documenting body dysmorphia as young people try to conform to this social expectation, resulting in eating disorders and body transformation.
Lastly, I am documenting transgenderism and the struggle young people have to live within a body they were born into but have no affiliation with.
— Michelle Sank
Award winnerIn My SkinMichelle Sank’s project looks at young people under the age of 25 in the UK who have had or are considering having cosmetic surgery in order to become more acceptable to themselves and achieve their ideal of being “beautiful”.View Images
Award winner
In My Skin
Michelle Sank’s project looks at young people under the age of 25 in the UK who have had or are considering having cosmetic surgery in order to become more acceptable to themselves and achieve their ideal of being “beautiful”.
In My Skin
Michelle Sank’s project looks at young people under the age of 25 in the UK who have had or are considering having cosmetic surgery in order to become more acceptable to themselves and achieve their ideal of being “beautiful”.
Trending this Week
Call Me Heena: Hijra, The Third Gender
“I feel like a mermaid. My body tells me that I am a man but my soul tells me that I am a woman…” A penetrating, multi-year report on a unique group of people—who fall outside of Western notions of gender—trying to carve out a...
Announcing the 2019 LensCulture Art Photography Award Winners!
Announcing the winners of the 2019 Art Photography Awards! Discover the 38 remarkable photographers who have been selected for their vision, innovation and creativity.
The Americans
This is the photo book that redefined what a photo book could be — personal, poetic, real. First published in 1959, Robert Frank’s masterpiece still holds up — the selection of photos, and their sequence and pacing is fresh, rich, generous, and...
Valparaiso
Capturing serene landscapes with a color palette extracted from nightmares, Francesco Merlini tells the story of loss, adolescence and childhood frustrations.
Life from a Tube: The London Underground
The world’s subway riders have inspired photographers for decades—this work stands with the best of them, capturing London’s Tube riders with humanity, humor and delight. Hear the full story behind this decades-long labor of love.
Down by the Hudson
Caleb Stein’s monochrome collection of portraits is an “ode” to the small town of Poughkeepsie, that finds its resolution in the edenic summer atmosphere of the local swimming spot.
Related
Environmental Migrants: The Next Great Wave?
Environmental migration is like an unexploded ordnance: by 2050, one in 45 people will be an environmental migrant—200 million people in total. In Haiti, for example, the situation is particularly dire.
Iran 1979-2009
This series of photos by Alfred Yaghobzadeh reveal quite a range of daily life in Iran over the past 30 years — from the Iranian Revolution in 1979 through the highly contested political elections of 2009.
Dildo/Bible: Foam Paul Huf Award 2015
In these award-winning, explicit portraits, Okabe sensitively presents her subjects: two of her transgender lovers who are going through the intense period of their transitions.
Weighing the Rain: Portraits
Cyanotype portraits of strangers from the streets of South Korea are cropped and printed in a special way to focus on the isolated, solitary faces — as if each is just one raindrop in a monsoon.
The Object of (Sex and) Desire
This controversial group show explores the blurry lines between love and lust, erotic art and pornography, sensuality, fetishism, transexuality, seduction and desire.
A Visual Diary About Distance
A wordless, poetic visual meditation on the theme “Distance”, these images link together as if they were impressions from dreams or reflections on memories.